“As you know, Hamilton is on one, and potentially two routes Amtrak would like to see expanded,” Derrick James, a senior manager of government affairs, wrote City Manager Joshua Smith on Saturday, after Congress approved the legislation Friday.
But, James added, “Having state government participation is key, for without that no funds will be disbursed for any routes.”
James’ Saturday email was a response to one Smith sent him that morning. Smith told him Hamilton will decide how to spend federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in coming weeks, and asked: “Any updates on Amtrak stops that you can provide us, so we can allocate ARPA funds correctly?”
State officials now are key
“Cities like Hamilton will need to let Governor (Mike) DeWine and your state legislative delegation know that you’d like to have passenger rail service,” James wrote Smith. “Federal funds will cover up to 80 percent of construction costs but state and local governments the remaining 20 percent. The time to start planning is now.”
Several years ago, then-Gov. John Kasich returned $400 million to the federal government that would have helped fund a similar expansion. Buy-in is important not only from DeWine and state lawmakers, but also from rail lines CSX and Norfolk Southern, which would have to give permission for location of stations along their tracks.
Ryan said he expects Hamilton staff to give a detailed report on station possibilities at a December council meeting. The city recently decided to relocate a historic train station away from the CSX tracks to a city property three blocks north along Martin Luther King Boulevard.
“I think the biggest thing is, first of all, they (Amtrak) have their federal allocation of monies,” Ryan said. “And now we just need to be prepared. We’re going to go literally full-steam-ahead on this. “
“We want to get on the 3C line,” Ryan said. “That line could come through Hamilton.”
The city has planning to do, “but the most important thing is we are now moving to the next step, which is significant for us,” Ryan said.
Stu Nicholson, executive director of the rail advocacy group All Aboard Ohio agreed a lot of work remains.
“We really need the governor to step up and say, ‘We want this. We’ll do everything we can to support it,” he said.
“We are already in contact with some state legislators because the state — as a matter of fact, all of the states — literally have to tell Amtrak, ‘Yes, we like your plan, we accept it, we support it, we want it,’” Nicholson said. Over time, Ohio and other states would have to help fund some of Amtrak’s costs for their routes.
Stations in Hamilton, Middletown, Oxford?
On a map showing the two rail routes, Hamilton and Oxford are listed as stops along the Cardinal route, which stopped in Hamilton until 2005. But Hamilton is not shown on the 3C’s route. Also not on that route is Middletown. The nearest stations to Butler County would be in Sharonville and Dayton.
“It’s a little early to drill it down to which train stops where, since this was just passed,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari. “We’ve come up there with our suggested station stops, but that is not an exclusive list.”
On the other hand, “We’ve already told Oxford, ‘You build it (a station) and we will come,’” Magliari said.
Oxford this spring signed an agreement with consultant AECOM for a $250,000 architectural and engineering study for a station, noted Oxford City Manager Doug Elliott. In late October, CSX signed a preliminary engineering agreement with Oxford. The city hopes to receive future state and federal grants to help with construction.
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